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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28721850">Soumaeda Week According To Rae</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/steak_soda_sucks_at_life/pseuds/steak_soda_sucks_at_life'>steak_soda_sucks_at_life</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Super Dangan Ronpa 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:02:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28721850</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/steak_soda_sucks_at_life/pseuds/steak_soda_sucks_at_life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kazuichi and Nagito, two very different people with very different views in life. They begin with a rift between them, but end up as something more precious to them than life itself. But how...?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Komaeda Nagito/Soda Kazuichi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soumaeda Week According To Rae</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The plot is everywhere please ignore that.</p><p>Just boys being stupid and dorky.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nagito was talking again. I do hope you know that by 'talking', I mean going on and on, endlessly, about hope.<br/>
This was a normal occurrence, nobody really found anything out of the ordinary with it. It could just be a little annoying at times. Hajime, for one, was tired of hearing the same thing over and over, and over and over again. The way Nagito painted his visions of hope never wavered, always the same old story. 'Hope of the future!' 'Despair is the stepping stone for hope!'<br/>
It had been offputting at first, to nearly everyone, but now had become more of an annoyance. Hajime put up with it a lot, purely for everyone else's sanity, but today, he just wasn't having it.<br/>
"Nagito, please-" Hajime pleaded, turning in his seat to face the white haired fool. Why did this man have to go on tangents in the middle of breakfast? "I've heard this all morning, can you go bother someone else for a while?"<br/>
Nagito had been extra sure to sit right beside Hajime to dump his speeches on the poor boy, but the moment he was protested against, he fell dead silent. Nodding, Nagito spoke again, this time, of something entirely different.<br/>
"Ah, of course. I have been bothering you with my lowly presence. I will make myself scarce," He left no room for debate, slowly standing up. A few of the others glanced over at him, but ultimately said nothing, choosing not to interfere as he left, green jacket fluttering behind his person.<br/>
Hajime heaved a sigh, Fuyuhiko rolled his eyes from across the table, and Chiaki patted Hajime's shoulder. Nagito was a handful, she understood.</p><p>Nagito, now outside, really only wandering with no proper destination, tried to think. Think about what? What other than hope ever popped into that silly head of his? It was as if he were a machine, hardwired to behave this way, and only this way.<br/>
The island remained quiet, it seemed that with everyone occupied with breakfast, things were far more still and silent than Nagito was used to. The gentle splash of waves against the beach sand didn't do much to break the silence, seeing as it was a constant enough sound to be nearly a part of the overwhelming quiet. He chose a path along the beach, allowing himself to lose track of the time and simply wander.<br/>
He had never been the most particularly fond of such warm weather, but at least it wasn't going to rain. Heaven knows that would be a disaster, Nagito had no appropriate clothes for such weather. And knowing his luck, he'd be fine out here.<br/>
Further down the beach, something in the sand caught his eye, a bit of light glinting off a shiny surface that bounced right into his eyes. Seemed the universe wanted Nagito to see this particular item, whatever it was. Hastening his stride, white hair bouncing with the momentum of his body, he headed right for the thing in the sand. The closer he came, the less it seemed to sparkle, and was apparently small enough that Nagito nearly walked straight past it before actually spotting the object itself. </p><p>A knut. A rusty, dented knut, bent just enough to be unusable. Why on earth would this be here? He knelt down to examine it closer, but didn't touch just yet.<br/>
Nagito found a busted knut.<br/>
He wondered if someone could have dropped it, but who in the world would carry knuts on them? Much less unusable ones like this. Lord knows where it had come from.<br/>
Turning the thing over in his fingers, visions of hope were about the furthest from his thoughts at the moment. He was far more interested in catching the unlucky soul that had lost a possession, regardless of how useless it seemed in the moment. Maybe it had fallen off some other object, or perhaps was some sort of memoir.<br/>
Nagito took the moment to think about this. Who should he ask about it first? A slight grin played at the corners of his thin lips at the next thought that bounced its way into his head; there was one individual who had not been at breakfast.<br/>
Thinking about that now, Nagito felt rather compelled to check up on them, rusty knut, or no rusty knut. They'd been behaving strangely the previous evening, so he did want to be sure they were alright, even if they really didn't want him around.<br/>
Straightening up from the sand, Nagito pocketed the knut, brushing a hand through his hair and glancing off in the rough direction of the cottages. The guy had to be in there, right? </p><p>There was hardly time to even contemplate that the target of his search might not be where he was headed, Nagito was on a mission now; operation check on friend. Even if...said friend thought he was a creep.<br/>
Truth was, Nagito thought very highly of this particular individual. The man had a strange attractiveness to him that the lucky student liked. At first he had thought it to just be his insatiable desire to be near and admire the talents of Hope's Peak, but not with this one. This guy was different. A shame he thought Nagito was completely off his rocker.<br/>
Before he knew it, his feet were hitting the wood planks of the boardwalk connecting the cottages to one another, steering him towards one in particular. Stopping at the front, he took a moment to wonder why there were mailboxes planted out front of these places; who would be sending them mail, here? Shaking his head, he moved closer to the door, raising a hand to knock.<br/>
A sudden crash from somewhere within the place changed that plan, instead driving Nagito to swiftly grip the handle, swinging open the unlocked door without warning.<br/>
He was met with the sight of an entanglement of neon clad legs and cords, similarly trapped arms twisting desperately around in an attempt to free the cords from around his legs. Of course, that was before he noticed the other presence in the room. Pink eyes met pale green ones; silence hung in the air between them.</p><p>"Uh, hey Komaeda, what'cha doin'?" Kazuichi asked, trying to flip himself over so he could look at Nagito properly.<br/>
It appeared he'd been fiddling with some device or another - Nagito couldn't tell what it was at this point - and had gotten himself quite entangled in the wires it contained. The floor was a mess of machine parts and grease, as well as a few tools scattered haphazardly around the toolbox off to the side.<br/>
"I have….come to ask something of you. Do you need help, though? I won't force trash like myself on you, of course, b-"<br/>
"No! No, uh," Kazuichi interrupted, wiggling his fingers that were trapped by his waist. "I actually think I'm startin' to get my circulation cut off, I think I kinda need help if you can get me loose…" He grinned up at the other boy, a bit of a sheepish pink coloration to his face.<br/>
Nagito blinked, taking a moment to try and figure out what had happened here. The wires were wrapped tight around Kazuichi's waist, trapping his arms at his waist, and more were bound tightly around both legs, keeping  them from moving correctly. It didn't look like an accidental fall entanglement, it looked like someone had tied them around him and left him like that.<br/>
"...Sure," Was all Nagito could really find the word for, stepping over some machine debris scattered across the floor to kneel down beside the mechanic, sliding his slender fingers along the wires to attempt to find some end point to begin unwinding them from.<br/>
"So…" He started, having completely forgotten about the rusty piece of metal sitting in his pocket. "How did...this, come about?" Nagito usually wasn't one to ask an Ultimate such useless questions, but he figured, maybe he could find some way to prevent a similar mishap in the future.<br/>
"Saionji," Kazuichi snorted, wiggling a hand free as Nagito pried at the wires. "Koizumi….can't exactly keep her in check anymore, so she decided it'd be fantastic to come screw around in here," He explained, making a valiant effort to wiggle out of the wires as Nagito tried to loosen them. </p><p>"And you didn't do anything to stop her yourself?" The former asked politely, although immediately regretted that considering Kazuichi's almost instantaneous agitation.<br/>
"Yeah, no, little gremlin's like somebody's five year old cousin, can't do anything to keep her outta the way," The answer came quick, but Nagito suspected that wasn't the whole truth. As much as he'd deny it on the spot, Kazuichi's cowardice was no secret, despite how badly he wanted it to be. "By the way, there's wire cutters in my toolbox, if you really can't get it with your hands," He nodded towards the open box sitting on the floor just a few paces from them, a few tools propped against the inner sides as if tossed in there at random times.<br/>
"Are you sure? I don't want to ruin what you're working on," Nagito furrowed his brows a little, knowing that these projects meant a lot to Kazuichi, and ruining them would be pretty upsetting.<br/>
"It's fine, I think I gotta replace most of the wiring at this point anyway, just snip 'em off." Kazuichi assured, shrugging. (Or, sort of shrugging, the best he could do laying on the floor.)<br/>
"...If you say so," Nagito freed his fingers from the wires, leaning over to reach into the toolbox. Shoving a couple of wrenches aside, and looping his fingers around the wire cutters.</p><p>"Oh! Hey, what'd ya come here for, Komaeda? You were right outside the door when I fell, so you'd have to have been right there, yeah? So what'd ya need?" Kazuichi asked, pulling his right hand out of the wires as Nagito began snipping away at them.<br/>
"Ah, right…" Nagito fell into a momentary silence, thinking how stupid it would look if he retrieved a rusty piece of metal from his pocket, presenting it like it was some fantastic revelation he'd discovered. He had to admit, he'd thought more about it at first that he would now care to acknowledge.<br/>
"Earth to Komaeda," Kazuichi was waving a hand in his face, looking oddly miffed at his sudden silence. "Do you need something or nah?" The mechanic had righted himself by now, free of the wires and making a valiant attempt to stuff them into one space, which was clearly not going to end well. Nagito wasn't sure what to say; he'd come to ask about a knut on the beach, but even he wasn't going to embarrass himself with such a tiny thing. If he was going to make a fool of himself, it would be something big.<br/>
"...Truth be told," He began, slowly rising to his feet. "I must admit I've been concerned about you, you didn't show up this morning and I wanted to be sure no foul luck had come your way," Which, in retrospect, was true. Nagito had briefly thought about Kazuichi's absence earlier. Now, he half expected an answer that entailed something along the lines of "I was working", or something even more vague. What he didn't expect, was for Kazuichi to seemingly deflate at the very mention, which was exactly what happened.<br/>
"I...look, man, what's it to you what I do?" Kazuichi seemed a bit harsh now, his more typical behavior around Nagito, considering how he seemed to think of him. Nagito, however, felt it a bit of a sudden change for no reason, especially as they'd been getting along perfectly well only a moment prior.<br/>
"I only worried for your wellbeing…. An Ultimate student like you is an important asset to th-"<br/>
"Oh cut it out, we've all heard it a bunch. Listen, I didn't come cause I jus' didn't want to, okay?" Kazuichi's sudden hostility was definitely not just out of the blue. Something was bothering him, Nagito was attentive enough to pick up on that.<br/>
"Is there...something that weighs on your mind, Souda?" Nagito found himself asking, immediately biting his cheek as a sort of self discipline. He - someone so low and useless compared to an Ultimate - would never push such a thing on the norm. He wasn't sure what drove him to do so now, especially when he could imagine Hajime or Chiaki being in the same place, and he'd never push the subject with them.<br/>
Kazuichi stopped his fiddling with the machine on the floor, appearing to fight with himself over something before standing up, and swinging the cottage's door shut. Nagito had the fleeting thought that he might be dead now, get bashed over the head with a hammer and be dumped somewhere outside to be found, but no, Kazuichi leaned against the nearby wall, and pointed over towards the bed.<br/>
"You sit there," He instructed, refusing eye contact, and shoving his hands into the deep pockets of his jumpsuit. Nagito was compliant, quietly taking the necessary steps backward to take a seat on the bed, which, he noted, was a mess.</p><p>"I dunno why you gotta know so bad," Kazuichi shrugged awkwardly, as if trying to play this off as less severe than he truly felt it to be. "I didn't come 'cause...I'm freaking terrified, okay? You saw what happened to Togami and Ter….Hanamura. I mean, hell, you're technically the cause," He explained, still keeping his gaze cast downward. Kazuichi generally looked a tad...intimidating; thin, sharp eyes and pronounced brows, the jarringly bright color of his hair and eyes, and not to mention the always obvious pointed teeth, which Nagito was still trying to figure out whether they were naturally that sharp, or not. But now, he just looked dismal, downtrodden. Not the cowardly sort of thing he generally had, nothing masked behind terribly feigned confidence, just pure unhappiness.<br/>
"What do ya think you're starin' at?" Nagito's head cleared a bit, and he realized he'd accidentally been staring. The lucky boy shook his head, hair flopping about his face lightly with the movement.<br/>
"Nothing, I didn't mean to," He assured, slowly standing up from the bed - awkwardly tossing the sheet into a somewhat less crumpled position - and moving a bit closer to Kazuichi. "Souda, while I'm here, I...found something, I thought maybe you'd know where it came from, or what to do with it," Thinking this a little less of an embarrassing time to do this, Nagito finally slid his hand back into his pocket, withdrawing the knut. And normally he'd ask permission to so much as breathe in the vicinity of an Ultimate, but he reached out, grabbed one of Kazuichi's hands, and placed the rusty piece of metal in his palm. In the moment their hands were touching, Nagito couldn't help but take note of the obvious differences between even their hands. While his were small and slender, with skin that felt like it could tear at any second, Kazuichi's were much larger, with broader fingers and heavily calloused surfaces, rough with old scars from who was to know what.<br/>
"I discovered this along the beach," Nagito offered, letting his hands fall behind his back, and clasping his fingers together.</p><p>"...On the beach?" Kazuichi's expression was quizzical, carefully examining the rusted metal that Nagito had handed him. "Komaeda, what made ya think that I'd be the right person to bring this to?" The question was genuine, and Nagito worried he might have annoyed him.<br/>
"Oh, I only supposed since you work with machines, you might- Know what it cake from. I can...take it and dispose of-"<br/>
"No!" Kazuichi interrupted, closing his hand around the knut. "You don't hafta do that, uh...it's mine," He shrugged, a bit sheepish about it, and deposited the metal into his own pocket. Nagito was...a little on the confused side. It was his? Since when did he just keep rusty metal around?<br/>
"...Yours?" Nagito ventured quietly, hoping he wasn't encroaching on anything private, but based on the pointed stare he received in return wasn't exactly positive.<br/>
"..More like my old man's," Kazuichi finally offered up, and Nagito had to wonder what would push him to give up this piece of information to someone he clearly wasn't fond of, especially with the words that followed. "He used to collect a whole bunch of bolts and knuts, all the time. He kinda got tired of it after a while, and tossed out all the containers. I picked up a whole bunch of 'em, hid them in a shoe box under my bed for a long time and added to the collection myself sometimes. After I started wearing this thing," He tugged on the collar of his neon jumpsuit. "I kept some in the pockets...guess I forgot to get them all out before all this happened,"<br/>
As Kazuichi finished, Nagito looked thoughtful, processing the information just given to him. He slowly nodded, a little unsure of where to go next.<br/>
"I see…" the lucky student clasped his hands at his back, anxiously rubbing a thumb over his other fingers. "Well, I'm glad I brought it to you, then,"<br/>
What an odd turn of events. Nagito might've found it more interesting if not for the obnoxiously obvious tension that now hung in the air between them. With a small smile, Nagito made a move to leave, thinking that'd be best, but stopped when Kazuichi spoke again.<br/>
"Hey, I know I kinda thought bad about ya before, but...you're not a bad guy, Komaeda." He shrugged, folding his arms. "You wanna start over? Try bein' friends?" He held out a hand, offering a handshake as far as Nagito could tell.<br/>
With a smile, Nagito reached out to take his hand. Rough fingers met soft ones once again, and even though it was only supposed to be a friendly handshake, he found himself lingering longer than need be.<br/>
"Uh...Komaeda? You can let go now-" Kazuichi made an effort to gently pull his hand away, but Nagito gripped his palm tighter, I'm fact pulling the mechanic close enough so their noses nearly brushed one another.<br/>
"..Kazuichi," Nagito started, but didn't have the words. He let go of Kazuichi's hand, placed both palms on his shoulders, and moved forward, pressing his lips to the other boy's mouth. He immediately felt Kazuichi tense under his grip, clearly surprised, but he didn't leave enough time for a proper reaction, breaking off only moments after and practically taking off for the door, leaving one statement in the air as he left.<br/>
"I would like to begin again, but I don't believe I can do so only as friends,"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have to go do day 2 now before it's tomorrow help</p></blockquote></div></div>
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